Dragon Ball being a shonen series has tons of messages and themes in it. Looking back on them, a lot of them are pretty well conveyed due to the straight-forwardness of the series. One of my favorites is the whole teamwork motto that we see from start to finish, granted it's really reiterated in the Buu saga. I also loved the never give up (shonen spirit) theme we constantly saw, along with giving mercy to your enemy (that's one thing I always liked about Goku). What themes/messages/mantras can you find? Which of these did you like?

Let's also not forget the anime has some that're separate from the manga due to filler. Which of those did you enjoy the most? The goal of this thread is to not only see what users liked what themes the most, but to try and list all of them in one index.

Fox666 wrote:It seems you have pissed a lot of people on this forum, and I am quite sure they would like to call you stupid and say that's the designated adjectives for you. But they don't do that because of there are rules in this community.

Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye wrote:I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.

Dear Buu, you are more hygienic than any of the other good guys. Well, except for Bulma, at least, she has established hygiene habits, and insisted on bathing Goku. Krillin, on the other hand, must be nearing Bacterian levels of stench by now. Good thing Dr. Gero removed no. 18's olfactory organs.

I couldn't help but notice a Semi-Luddite theme as technology is almost always depicted as a negative influence (For example, only the bad guys ever use technology, apart from the Dragon Radar and the good guys only get through to namek via an ancient and probably obsolete ship)

I can't say I ever thought of it that way, but it really makes sense if you look at the Cell saga.

Fox666 wrote:It seems you have pissed a lot of people on this forum, and I am quite sure they would like to call you stupid and say that's the designated adjectives for you. But they don't do that because of there are rules in this community.

Isn't the main female character an engineer? Big Good went to Namek by ship made by Earth scientist, characters use and enjoy quite developed devices.

I'm also not sure about working and powering up- it turns that no matter what happen nobody will be even close to main character's level.

My favourite moral- twice pride, double fall. The whole message of Frieza Saga. He had lots of occasions to finish everyone, but he was so short sighted that he forgot about the "always better" conclusion. Second- do what you are designated to and never want people to praise you, because awareness of your own strength is the greatest prize. Our heroes had all rights to be angry about Mr.Satan's position and their one word could destroy his reputation, but they choose to remain in shadow, (and eventually use him as a voice-tube), because fame had nothing to offer them.

Per aspera ad astra, man!

Women belong in the kitchen. Men belong in the kitchen. Everyone belongs in the kitchen, the kitchen has food

Aside from travel, we even never see communications technology being integrated into the protagonists' life (for instance, between Dragonball and Z, there was no communication between Goku and his friends, and nobody aside from Piccolo and Goku, but they had insider knowledge from the future, knew that Bulma had a child between Freeza's death and the arrival of the androids). I mean, the scouter recovered from Raditz alone would have made significant leaps in terms of technology (as well as the Saiyan pods and Dr. Briefs' ship for that matter), but we never see that potential fully utilised even after 10 years.

And Capsules are magical too:P Healing tanks are eeevilll!The fact that they didn't communicate was for me a lack of second thought from Toriyama. Even if they are so against technology they always have letters (yes, people used to maintain bond that way and it worked) and Goku's Nimbus that allow him travelling fast and free. (I know that people fell apart, but Goku didn't have toons of new colleagues in absorbing work that prevents him from paying a short visit or even write to the most important people in his life).

We don't see technology being spread, because there's no main theme in DB. Since elements have nothing to do with our heroes and the brain of the group was separated there were no purpose in developing that thread.

Per aspera ad astra, man!

Women belong in the kitchen. Men belong in the kitchen. Everyone belongs in the kitchen, the kitchen has food

Well, my favourite themes, I actually had to think a while to list it:

1. Friendship theme in general. When there was that feeling that everybody could rely on eachother. The Saiyan arc is the best for me, in this particular aspect.2. Elder, wise masters. I loved when Kame-sennin was pictured as a great teacher, an authority.3. Good over evil.4. Training, when thanks to hard work warriors could achieve everything.5. I personally also like Vegeta being cocky and then having his ass beaten

In general, I associate the sentimental aspect of Dragon Ball with watching anime as a kid. Polish TV version was slightly different than the original one. First thing, it was censored and seemed more serious [certainly there was also a lot of humor ], the language was less colloquial than this one in the manga- which translation is apparently very close to the japanese version. But now when I'm older I appreciate original Dragon Ball, uncut with japanese dubbing, it's something different.

peter291 wrote:Well, my favourite themes, I actually had to think a while to list it:

1. Friendship theme in general. When there was that feeling that everybody could rely on eachother. The Saiyan arc is the best for me, in this particular aspect.2. Elder, wise masters. I loved when Kame-sennin was pictured as a great teacher, an authority.3. Good over evil.4. Training, when thanks to hard work warriors could achieve everything.5. I personally also like Vegeta being cocky and then having his ass beaten

In general, I associate the sentimental aspect of Dragon Ball with watching anime as a kid. Polish TV version was slightly different than the original one. First thing, it was censored and seemed more serious [certainly there was also a lot of humor ], the language was less colloquial than this one in the manga- which translation is apparently very close to the japanese version. But now when I'm older I appreciate original Dragon Ball, uncut with japanese dubbing, it's something different.

I think theme no.4 was somewhat undermined by Mr. Satan shown hogging all of the credit for threats that he didn't deal with (except for Buu) and everyone believing him.